After our conversation about funny street names, listeners chime in with more: In Tallahassee, Florida, there’s a Frankie Lane and a Lois Lane; in Batesville, Arkansas, you can meet up at the intersection of Gwinn and Barrett; Boulder Creek...
Sometimes people naming streets seem to have a little too much fun: In Casco, Maine, there’s a road called Uptha, as in Uptha Road. In Hemet, California, there’s a Haviture Way, and along Porters Lake, Nova Scotia, three connecting...
Dan from Atlantic Beach, Florida, grew up in southwestern Ohio, where he and his friends and family referred to their neighborhoods as plats, as in “What plat do you live in?” To plat a place is jargon for the process of making a...
A Fort Worth, Texas, listener wonders about the pronunciation of the word apricot. Is that first syllable long or short? APE-rih-cott or APP-rih-cott? The answer depends on what part of the country you’re in. If you’re in the northern United States...
Brian Stark, who calls himself the States Runner, has crossed 31 states on foot. He phones from Arizona to discuss the funny ways people in different regions give directions when he’s lost. A West Virginian once told him his destination was...
Another word of the year candidate is immappacy, which is formed by analogy with “innumeracy,” and means the inability to understand maps. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Immappacy” Every year when I put...